A Farmer's Wife: Winning Our Crown...

Colvin Family Farm is
home to 2 parents, 10 children,
1 son-in-love, 2 grandchildren, 6 cats,
300+ chickens, and 29 hogs. (This number is to increase on Wednesday.) This is where God has placed me to serve Him...it's here among the nitty- gritty of everyday life I'm "winning my crown".

Another week has flown by! With the addition of school to our still full farming schedule the week goes by in a blur. I described the feeling to one friend as as I feel like I'm "surfing a BIG wave"...the wave breaks and I come to shore each day around 1 p.m. when we eat lunch. Then I'm "surfing" again. The tide goes out each evening about 8:30 when everyone is down for the night, and the adults are quietly going about their business.

The farm work is still humming away. The rush of the season is past, so the little details that easily slip to the back burner are now being dealt with. Larger projects like getting the strawberries and garlic in are being taken care of also. And my favorite!...the final bush hogging of the season is taking place. It's a blessing to see things look beautiful again.

Levi traced this rooster a special shareholder
drew for me this summer.

On the home front we're feeling more at ease with the shift of seasons...older boys (16 & 18) are in from the fields 4 days a week for school. (We still have a large harvest each Friday.)

It's amazing to see how much school work can be done in that amount of time when they get a chance to "relax" inside for school. My plans for the 3 high schoolers that should have taken them up till Thanksgiving are about done!

The younger children (12, 9, & 6) are daily driven to see what we'll be doing in the learning center. It's a true answer to prayer to see how they will easily glide through the basics each day to get to the differing activities in the learning center!

This week I introduced the topic of money with the help of the U.S. Mint. On their site there is a treasure for every parent or teacher...home educating or not! (Grades K-12) There are countless activities,

research projects, print-offs, and games to teach children with in an engaging way. They also have online games that reinforce learning that we've not played yet.

As a marketing family my children need to be comfortable with every aspect of money at a young age...with the help of the Mint, it ties history, language arts, geography, science, and math all together. This is an area of delight for Luke (12 this week) as he collects U.S. coins, and really any child is easily attentive when the word "money" is mentioned!

Charity (6) is learning to count coins in her A Becka math program. This week they added quarters to the list of coins introduced...it fit right in with what she has in her hands at the learning center!

Luke and Levi really dove into the fun! Anything to do with coins really excites Luke! I taught (and

reinforced) the use of bar graphs to introduce our topic. With small containers of differing change they counted and recorded on their graphs their totals.

Then we went to the mint's worksheets. They were easily tailored to our needs. It was rewarding a few days later when Levi (9) called out to me to see his computer screen where he was doing his math. (This is usually not allowed...but...) There on the screen was a lesson that introduced bar graphs! The connection was made and the lesson was a breeze because of it!

We also played some more multiplication and division

domino games. I'm fascinated by the potential of this game...why haven't I gone past the basics with it before? Explore the possibilities of using dominoes in your home by doing a Pintrest search on "domino math". See my last post below for more.

A big question I've struggled with in the past...so I know others do too is, "When do I fit the "extras" in?" Anything that goes beyond the Reading, Writing, Arithmetic some days really doesn't fit in to be honest! We have learning center Monday through Wednesday as we are still marketing full time. Give yourself a little slack...BUT, these

activities will create an excitement in your child that will motivate them to not drag out the normal basic studies. (You know, when a lesson of math that should take 20 minutes, takes an hour plus! ) So, do a bit of research yourself and try an idea or two and see for yourself! (Read my past few posts to see what we've been doing in our eclectic learning center.)

You may read my description of our week above and think, "She's really got it made!" These are the highlights of my week. We've all got our struggles where God has placed us to serve. We deal with the challenges of child training, work schedules, 3 courtships, financial challenges, relationships, and weather related issues on the farm. These are the very hardships that we all are enduring in our lives today that are given by the Master for the very purpose of enabling us to grow to be like Him, and one day win our crown.

Don't wait for some ideal situation, some romantic difficulty, some far-away emergency, but rise to meet the actual conditions which God has placed around you today. Your crown of glory lies embedded in the very heart of these things...those hardships and trials that are pressing you this very hour, week and month of your life.

Honestly, the hardest things in our lives are not those that the world around us sees. Down deep in our secret soul unseen and unknown by any but Jesus, there is a "little" trial we don't dare to mention, that is harder for us to bear than any suffering.

There my friend lies your crown. God help you to overcome it with His strength, and one day cast that crown at our Savior's feet.

"And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death."

Revelation 12:10,11

Abundant Blessings,

The Farmer's Wife,

Val